Much like Chris Coghill's other film "Spike Island" the plot is merely an excuse to drive a nostalgia trip forwards, there's no substance to it at all. I think the main driving point is that two young men in their 20s are organising a rave as if that's some sort of unique story, I'd argue that almost all rave organisers at that time were young men in their 20s.

It's also a poorly executed and anachronistic nostalgia trip at that, the fashion and overall aesthetic is very much a mashup of different periods of the rave scene from 1988-1999 that has been appropriated for the early 2010s, which many "period" films particularly low budget ones are guilty of. The music is also all over the place but that's the same with the slightly superior "Beats" from 2019, I kind of get it as the vague setting makes it appeal to a wider audience but it also paints a false picture of the rave scene, I promise you that no one in 1990 was listening to Mentasm by Joey Beltram because it hadn't come out in 1990.

The film would have never survived on its plot alone but I feel like it would have been more valid as mindless nostalgia if it had more direction, I. E the early illegal acid house raves of 1988-1990, the big legal breakbeat hardcore raves taking over in 1991-1993, the decline in the mid-late 90s etc. Because the setting is so jumbled and inauthentic it means the film doesn't work. Chris's other work "Spike Island" is a significantly worse film but has a bigger audience because it actually sticks to one setting which in turn makes it more valuable as an excuse for a limp plotted nostalgia trip.

It scores some points because the two talented lead actors do the absolute best with the fairly shallow roles they've been given, every other character is fairly forgettable though to be honest.

Props are also due for not falling in to cliche period dialogue like so many British films set in the past do for the sake of reminding you that it's not in modern day, none of that "I rented this new VHS that came out, got home and my Amiga wasn't working, drove my 1990 Ford Escort to Dixon's to buy a new one, because it's 1990. Did I mention I hate our current prime minister Margaret Thatcher?"

Also poor effort including that VERY obviously modern stock footage shot of Amsterdam.

I had a short stint as a club promoter and DJ in different parts of the UK in the early 1990s, and I enjoyed 'Weekender' - it's clearly been written with some knowledge of the scene back then; the unbridled optimism, the conflicts between DJs, promoters, drug dealers and gangsters, and the associated tensions between different music styles.

But there are some flaws. The boys seem to pick up a massive following immediately and easily by accident - the growth element of their events in terms of size and success feels like it was intended by the writers but doesn't come through in the production. A more realistic portrayal would have shown the earlier events as noticeably smaller, even thrown in one where hardly anyone showed up but everyone still enjoyed it.

This becomes incongruous when they're courted by Gary Mac (Stephen Wright) - Why did Gary suddenly offer them lines of coke and a trip to Ibiza? Presumably because it took time, energy and effort to build a following of massive crowds spending all night dancing, and Gary wanted access to sell his drugs, but this wasn't clear. Was the following all supposed to be down to Captain Acid (Tom Meeten) and his pirate radio show? Why wasn't this character courted by Gary as much as Dylan and Matt? He would be the talent that's drawing the crowds, not them.

The Ibiza sequence fails to explain why Gary has flown them all there. He's having a party, what was the occasion? Why does he have a villa there in the first place? Does he run a club there? What's motivating him? Drug sales? Revenge against John? Why is John at his party? Gary repeatedly says he wants to talk business but none seems to ever be concluded. Are the boys are just supposed to be so out of their depth they're ignoring Gary's offers? We don't get to see enough on-screen to know whats really going on. Weak jokes about Captain Acid getting stuck at the airport seem to take the place of proper narrative.

The historical gaffes are there too - most of it can be overlooked, but the banknotes are such a prominent part of the story that it's unforgivable and pure laziness to not use props with historically accurate designs.

All that said, I'm still glad to have stumbled on this while it was available on Netflix. It was fun and reminded me of what was in many ways a simpler, more hopeful era.

A poor attempt at an edgy film.

The plot wasn't gritty enough to be passed off as a druggy film and with some areas, particularly the acting of a few, felt unrealistic.

A film to have on in the background, nothing more.